Volendam 12/3-12/13 Review

[peaches from georgia]

 

Maybe Chef Rudi should start tasting his food.

 

 

Chef Rudi was on the Vol last week at the beginning of the cruise. It wasn't just a rumor. Maybe he should have stayed longer??

[elmorejj]

And risk being made to walk the plank!!........jean:cool:

[HeatherInFlorida]

Gizmo, really enjoyed reading your review of the cruise. Sounds like you got the same Caesar Salad we did ... not a Caesar dressing, that's for sure! But our Greek was excellent.

 

We did have Pea Soup on Dutch Night and I loved it. Were you at first or second sitting? Maybe they ran out? That happened with a couple of promised dishes on our cruise. We saw it on the menu during the day and suddenly poof!

 

So glad I know about the deboning now, but I think it might be nice if they offer to debone it for you ... just for the sake of the hundreds of people who don't visit CC (and even some of us who do and missed that little tidbit;) ).

 

At least I remembered the bungee cord ... :o

 

Your cruise sounds much like ours except we did have many more choices of cookies than you apparently did.

 

But I'm wondering how No No Nanette liked the cruise! Wasn't she on this one??? I could swear she was but I've seen no report from her. Anybody know? Maybe she stayed on Half Moon Cay?

[JimVrhovac]

I assumed they were TSA. If I was wrong I apoligize.

 

The point was that by only having one machine working it caused the bottleneck.

 

First time have been through such a fiasco since military days and hope it never happens again. On the positive side No one was killed or injured during the fiasco so it ended well.

 

Jim & Ruth

[Copper10-8]

I assumed they were TSA. If I was wrong I apoligize.

 

The point was that by only having one machine working it caused the bottleneck.

 

First time have been through such a fiasco since military days and hope it never happens again. On the positive side No one was killed or injured during the fiasco so it ended well.

 

Jim & Ruth

 

Jim, Sir please, no need to apologize here! Bad planning on their part (wouldn't happen in the Air Force!;) )

[sail7seas]

Sage.......

 

I'd appreciate if you would share your comments here comparing Crystal and HAL.

 

Thanks in advance if you choose to do that.

 

 

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review.

We did have the Dutch Pea Soup on both of our cruises. It was very good.

Do agree about the flambees -- we ate at 5:45 and they never started them until 7:15 or later!! Many people were finished and gone from the upper level by the time they started them.

I did order the Puff Pastry with Chicken -- asked them not to put on the Hollandaise Sauce -- it came correctly and was very good.

The lounge chairs on our verandah were the same 2 broken ones that we had on our Feb/Mar cruise in 2005!! They have never bothered to replace them.

[Krazy Kruizers]

This gets more interesting as time goes by and we all express our opinions and what we all observed.

On our Oct 24th cruise we were told that there had been so many complaints - especially about the food and service -- that someone was sent down from Seattle to look into the matter. That person was on our Oct 24th cruise - never met him to my knowledge. Everything was fine then.

But the second cruise he took over -- service was bad in the dining room -- cheaper quality of food was ordered -- preparations were poor - and there were some changes in the menu from ine segment to the other.

People are complaining more -- so Chef Rudi is sent to the ship!!

And things don't seem to be getting any better.

[elmorejj]

Jim, Sir please, no need to apologize here! Bad planning on their part (wouldn't happen in the Air Force!;) )

 

 

 

Speaking as an ex AF wife, and mother of two currently serving Airmen, I`ll second that remark, Copper!!:cool:

[LemonZest]

As a suite guest, we were able to stay in our stateroom until our number was called. HAL really has this down to a science.

 

Lon

 

Actually, it is never necessary on HAL to be a "SUITE GUEST" to receive the courtesy of remaining in your stateroom until your disembarkation number is called.....HAL offers this courtesy to EVERY GUEST EQUALLY, regardless of how much one paid for one's accomodations.

 

One of the things I find most refreshing about cruising on HAL (as opposed to certain other lines i.e. Princess for example), is that there is very little unnecessary classism.....if a courtesy can be offered at little or no charge to ALL GUESTS, they do so.

 

THIS is what makes HAL a class act.

 

LZ

[Copper10-8]

Speaking as an ex AF wife, and mother of two currently serving Airmen, I`ll second that remark, Copper!!:cool:

 

Forgot to add that it wouldn't happen in the USAF because the USMC wouldn't let it happen, Ma'am;) - Please thank your boys for serving!!

[gizmo]

Gizmo, really enjoyed reading your review of the cruise. Sounds like you got the same Caesar Salad we did ... not a Caesar dressing, that's for sure! But our Greek was excellent.

 

We did have Pea Soup on Dutch Night and I loved it. Were you at first or second sitting? Maybe they ran out? That happened with a couple of promised dishes on our cruise. We saw it on the menu during the day and suddenly poof!

 

So glad I know about the deboning now, but I think it might be nice if they offer to debone it for you ... just for the sake of the hundreds of people who don't visit CC (and even some of us who do and missed that little tidbit;) ).

 

 

 

They didn't run out of pea soup, they just didn't have it. We received the menu in our cabin early that morning and pea soup was not listed.

 

Wasn't the Caesar dressing weird ? Maybe I should send a bottle of "Ken's" to Chef Rudi. :rolleyes:

 

They should come right over and debone the fish, you should not have to ask. My guess is the steward got busy and just forgot.

[HeatherInFlorida]

They didn't run out of pea soup, they just didn't have it. We received the menu in our cabin early that morning and pea soup was not listed.

 

Wasn't the Caesar dressing weird ? Maybe I should send a bottle of "Ken's" to Chef Rudi. :rolleyes:

 

They should come right over and debone the fish, you should not have to ask. My guess is the steward got busy and just forgot.

 

I have to admit I prefer split pea soup to the Dutch pea soup, but that's just me. They did have a delicious lobster bisque that didn't taste like lobster at all ... more like crab. But it was still good.

 

Good idea! Send him a bottle!:D The dressing didn't even faintly resemble a Caesar dressing ... still I ordered it a couple of times simply because the other salads were weak in taste as well.

 

I'm sure you're right about the deboning. Whatever the problem, the service was very poor on our ship.

[mjcruisers]

Just got home so these are random thoughts off the top of my head. If not quite the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly I'll call them the Very Good and the Big Disappointments or what I might call The Cutbacks:

 

Very Good:

 

The Pinnacle was excellent both times we ate there- great food and wonderful service. Like everyone I would like to see menu changes, but everything we had was very good. And you can order any of the 3 'special of the day' courses and pair them with courses from the regular menu. One night we had a fabulous Warm Lobster Salad starter with the filet from the regular Pinnacle menu.

 

Our Dining Stewards were fantastic as were the all the DR staff we met. Loved them all, so it truly depends where you are sitting.

 

Ocean Bar stewards- great- and the lounge was not crowded so we always were able to have pre-dinner cocktails with our friends at the bar or at a table in the bar area with no problem.

 

Neptune Lounge staff was great and the Pinnacle guys do a fantastic job keeping it spotless and the food plentiful.

 

The lobster at the Farewell Dinner was the best we ever had on a ship.

 

Christmas trees were already up and beautiful.

 

Loved the Explorations Cafe and the Coffee Bar. Internet was very slow, but the ambiance in the Explorations is great and a real additon to the ship.

 

Suite Welcome Party and the VIP Party were very good- hot hors d' ouevres, the good nuts, and any drink you wished. Didn't attend the Suite Luncheon (which I wish we had- heard it was fabulous) nor the Mariner's Party so I can't comment on that.

 

Room Service was absolutely terrific. We had breakfast in our suite every morning but one and the food was the best we have had on any HAL cruise. We and friends ate one dinner in our suite just to have the usually fantastic Club Sandwich and we were served beautifully.

 

The ship was very clean and in good condition, though the suites are badly in need of redecorating.

 

No known illness aboard and Purell had to be used entering the DR and Lido.

 

We did the Culinary Arts hands-on cooking (a Rustic French Dinner) with Head Pinnacle Chef Ani and it was a highlight of our cruise. Made friends there and had one of the best meals of the whole cruise, even if we cooked it ourselves! Unfortunately, there was not enough participation to have the 3rd planned cooking experience- Breads.

 

Debarkation- fast and orderly, at least for Group I. Can't speak for anyone else.

 

Best of all were not only the 3 couples we traveled with, but the many wonderful people we met on the ship including Lon and Judy. (We also enjoyed talking with Del, though he doesn't know it because several of us who recognized him teased him by not giving him our CC names!) We quickly had a great group who socialized the entire cruise and that made all the Not So Good and Disappointing aspects not as important.

 

The Disappointments and Cutbacks:

 

We had already made Pinnacle reservations before boarding and were able to add another night, I have no doubt because we were in an S. However, to turn back so many pax, especially dozens or more who had a Free Night from their TA, is a crime. Obviously it is because of lack of help as less than 1/3 of the tables are used every night. The first time we were there it was 8 PM, prime time for dining, and no more than 8 tables had diners. The vacant tables were never used at anytime that evening. The 2nd night we dined at the Pinnacle there were maybe 10 tables in use. From conversations with senior staff in the know, it is this way every night and something has to be done about it. Pax were absolutely furious who could not be accomodated and rightly so, as they saw the room barely occupied every night, yet they were told 'no reservations' available.

 

Dining Room- the menu selections and the entrees were a great disappointment, though probably noticed most by those who have cruised HAL a number of times. Food is personal opinion, but several of the items we and tablemates had were barely edible and as said elsewhere should have been an embarrassment to the chef to serve. Menus were 'familiar', but then you realized so many of the super entrees were missing. I'm going to compare these menus to those from other cruises and will post examples later. Believe me, this is not just my opinion, but was quite the topic of conversation with almost everyone we met, most of them veteran HAL cruisers. Comment cards that were shared with me all gave the DR a '6' at the very highest and most often even less, with lots of comments written in. We are not that fussy, but our opinion this cruise was shared by so many. Food in the DR has definetley suffered a cutback in availability, quality and preparation. Consequently we made other dining plans 4 of the 10 nights and others were doing similar.

 

Many small things such as cloth towels in the restrooms were always out of stock or only one or two left. It's not an accident when it is that way in any and all restrooms you go in to all over the ship.

 

Pre-dinner Lounge hors d'ouevres were cold only and peanuts, no good nuts. The hot ones were one of the things that made HAL special.

 

The 2nd formal night should really be eliminated. The menu was one of the worst and there is nothing special about the night at all. Welcome and Farewell formal nights would suffice unless HAL does something to make the middle one something to remember.

 

Embarkation- one of the all time disasters of any cruise we have ever been on. We were at a horrible pier- #29- the pier which gets all the old equipment we were told when the gangway broke. However, no excuse for a pax line a mile long being held outside in the heat for several hours while the terminal inside was empty. Stewards finally passed out water, unfortunately only about 10 glasses. With the age of the pax this never should have happened.

 

I'm sure I'll think of more comments as others post. We had a good cruise because of our friends and activities together, but the changes and cutbacks are very noticeable and many of the loyal HAL pax we know were talking experimenting with other lines. This was not the same Volendam we sailed on just a little over a year ago and I think others who have sailed on it before and loved it would agree if they cruised on it now.

 

I too notice the cutbacks but do notice that I continue to pay about the same amount of money now as we did 5 years ago for our cabin. Actually I am surprised they can provide so much for so little.

[ekerr19]

Thanks for all the great reviews of the Volendam! Heather, I am still going to finish reading yours - I have really enjoyed the portion I was able to read this morning. :)

 

Re: Salad dressing - it's funny, almost every salad I've ordered lately had dressing that did not seem to be like anything I thought I'd ordered. I had the "mysterious" Caesar dressing on the Noordam this past summer and thought it was just me.

 

I will also agree with the selection issue. While the food we've had recently seems to be "ok" and some above average, the selection seems so oddly lacking to me. I tried a couple different things because grilled chicken breast or NY strip steak seemed like "blah" choices to me - and nothing I chose seemed exceptional, just average - if that.

[gizmo]

 

I will also agree with the selection issue. While the food we've had recently seems to be "ok" and some above average, the selection seems so oddly lacking to me. I tried a couple different things because grilled chicken breast or NY strip steak seemed like "blah" choices to me - and nothing I chose seemed exceptional, just average - if that.

 

I would have welcomed NY Strip Steak. The alternate was "Grilled Sirloin Steak". I saw it. It was not NY strip and was very thin. It did not look very appealing.

[ekerr19]

I would have welcomed NY Strip Steak. The alternate was "Grilled Sirloin Steak". I saw it. It was not NY strip and was very thin. It did not look very appealing.

 

Yuk, thin grilled sirloin? No strip? I guess we were lucky then. :confused:

 

We usually eat a few times in the Pinnacle so I try and avoid steak in the D/R, but one night I did opt for the strip steak and it was decent.

 

Did they have the short beef ribs, if you recall? My DH ordered them one night (and he is not picky) - and he didn't eat much of his entree, he said they were tough and greasy, something we heard from others - so I was wondering if they still offered them.

 

Was there any entree that stood out as very good or exceptional?